A campaign has been launched in a bid to save Lymm’s historic Cotebrook House from demolition.
Local resident Sue Thomason has launched an online petition saying it is “an important part of Lymm’s culture and history, a Lymm landmark and a beautiful building surrounded by attractive woodland.”
She added: “To demolish this important historical house to make space for 12 more modern new-build houses would negatively alter the landscape around St Peter’s church, which can be seen for miles around.
“To use the excuse that the houses will help solve the housing crisis just doesn’t wash. Lymm is being built over so rapidly that if all other areas were to be developed this quickly we would end up with millions more houses than people! Cotebrook House is part of Lymm’s history and we do not want it to be demolished. Restore it, by all means, and make use of it but do not destroy it and build over it – and it’s wooded gardens – with more ugly new-build houses.”
Local councillor Sheila Woodyatt said: “I was devastated when Cotebrook closed and would like to support this petition. Unfortunately I think it may be too late. The reason for the demolition is the state of the building especially the roof and the cost of repair is prohibitive. The trustees would have liked to retain the building but the cost of repairing it is far too expensive. Hopefully the plans will be tasteful and complement the site.”
Councillor Ian Marks added: “It was a great shame when Cotebrook Home was forced to close because it is part of Lymm’s history. Sadly not enough people wanted to go there and it became uneconomic to keep open. Staff lost their jobs and residents were forced to move elsewhere including some who had been there for a very long time. I had hoped that another organisation would come along and take it over or open it up as another kind of home but clearly no one thought the existing building was sustainable.
He added: “Comments by the developers that the extra houses they want to build will help solve the housing problem completely miss the point. Lymm does not need yet more detached houses. What we desperately need is affordable housing, especially for our younger people. There is a real shortage of houses of this nature in Lymm. I would be much more sympathetic to new development if the mix of homes was at the lower end of the market. The problem is that building homes that we need does not make so much money for developers.”
A spokesperson for Warrington Council said:“Any plans for demolition or new building will have to go through the usual planning process. It will then be up to the Development Control Committee to decide, after hearing representations from interested parties and recommendations from officers, whether any work can go ahead.”
Cotebrook House, formerly the country home of the Dewhurst family, became a home for physically disabled adults in 1946.
It closed in October 2015. Trustees have pledged to donate proceeds from the sale to local charities.
An application to demolish the building and build 12 homes on the site was withdrawn by Thelwall based Lane End Developments last month.
The petition can be viewed here
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-cotebrook-house-in-lymm
7 Comments
The building is derelict and cannot be saved – shame, but true. At least the plan for a small number of detached houses retains all of the mature trees and wouldn’t add too much to the traffic on Oughtrington Lane. “Affordable” homes would be much higher density, would almost certainly result in the loss of the trees, and would add far more traffic to the road.
Something is going to be built there sooner or later, better a small development of quality homes in a green setting than a load of crammed in shoeboxes.
A development of 12 houses with four bedrooms each will mean at least two more cars per household. Add that the the 10 new houses built on the site of the Farmer’s Arms and you simply cannot state truthfully that this development wouldn’t add too much to the traffic on Oughtrington Lane. I think it’s time, Peter, for you to state your true interest in this development. Y
So what caused the fire. Oh sorry not happened yet has it.
Trustees have given up on it, local councillors have given up on it.
Perhaps it’s time for a change of trustees and a change of councillors. Ian Marks & Co tried to sell off Walton Hall to a hotel group, remember. Yet look at the success story it is now.
Where there’s a will there’s a way but there is certainly no will from your present local councillors.
Petitioners – vote them out!
Absolutely right SHA. The relevance and benefits of Culture and Heritage have repeatedly been ignored or at best sidelined by successive administrations in this town for far too long, to the detriment of the town and its people. The current administration was shamed into action by an adverse report on the town’s lowly standing in the culture/heritage stakes a year or so ago. Culture Warrington is headed by ex councillors, who also have a controlling interest in Live Wire. LW is a council controlled organisation purportedly set up to improve the lot our citizens in all sorts of ways other than culturally since it aims to shutdown our libraries. At one stage they planned to relocate our main library into a vacated shoe shop in a shopping mall, which speaks volumes of those currently holding our culture/heritage reins.
Regarding Councillor Sheila Woodyatt’s claims that cost of repair of the building ‘especially the roof’ would be prohibitive, it would be interesting to find out why the offer of a FREE new roof for Cotebrook house by a local builder was ignored.
It feels like an impossible task as the feelings of local people are steamrollered in all of these development cases in Lymm village. I would love to have the resources and know how to conduct an investigation into WBC and even Lymm Parish Council to find out if individuals are benefitting financially from building over the whole of Lymm. I am clearly not saying this is happening or pointing the finger at any one person. I would like this to be investigated as from the outside this looks like a possibility.
One more thing, as an ex journalist, I can see very clearly how words are being used by some councillors to swing the pendulum in favour of the developers, while appearing on the surface to be on the side of the local people.
It is very interesting to hear a free replacement roof offer for Cotebrook House was refused. It is further confirmation of what many longtime Warringtonians have thought has been afoot across the borough, not just in Lymm Sue, for a long long time.